revolutionaress/revolutionarette

Constance Markievicz (née Gore-Booth) was an Anglo-Irish Countess, Sinn Féin and Fianna Fáil politician, revolutionary nationalist, suffragette and socialist. She participated in many Irish independence efforts, including the Easter Rising of 1916, in which she had a leadership role. First woman elected to government position, and first woman elected to the British Parliament but she turned it down due to her involvement in Irish politics.

Alone in dark art house theatres

she watched the Motorcycle Diaries

Che, Parts I&II

dreaming of being Che’s Aleida, Tania

fist in the air

beret adjusted just right

She was a revolutionary

soon to carry a gun

training for battle

training to be an ideologue

a Nadezhda, a Constance,

a Sophie, a Lakshmi,

to kill and die for the cause

to be a hero, a martyr

people needed revolution

even if they could not see it

she wrote her own manifesto

the slogans, the urban guerrillas

Che by her side, guiding her hand on the trigger

all for the people, even if the people died too

Bruce Cockburn’s empassioned song about civil war in Central America: If I Had a Rocket Launcher from Stealing Fire (1984)

David Bowie using an Iggy Pop story to talk about no longer vital revolutionaries and revolutions: Panic in Detroit from Aladdin Sane. (1973)